In 2018, a year when hip-hop accounted for over a quarter of all streamed music in the US – one songwriter, producer, engineer, instrumentalist, and composer – Chris Barnett, worked on songs that contributed nearly 2 billion of those plays.

Today (January 10), MBW can exclusively reveal that Barnett, professionally known as CBMix, has just signed a worldwide deal with Downtown Music Publishing.

Barnett has built up a catalog of collaborations with the likes of Lil Pump, Wiz Khalifa, Chance the Rapper, Juice WRLD, Kanye West, Smylez, Young Chop, and Chief Keef, among others.

He co-produced Wiz Khalifa’s single Hopeless Romantic featuring Swae Lee, Juice WRLD’s single Wasted featuring Lil Uzi Vert, and the Top 10 Kanye West and Lil Pump single I Love It — alongside Lil Pump’s Esskeetit and Pump and Desiigner’s Overseas.

He is also one of the creators behind Lil Pump and XXXTENTACION’s global hit Arms Around You featuring Maluma and Swae Lee.

Following his success with Lil Pump on numerous hit songs, Barnett will also have significant contributions on his upcoming album, Harverd Dropout, set for release this year.

Building a network from his early days as producer/engineer in his hometown of Chicago, Barnett landed a spot on Chance The Rapper’s Coloring Book (2016) for the song Mixtape featuring Young Thug and Lil Yachty.

The project went on to win a Grammy for Best Rap Album, becoming the first streaming-only body of work to do so.

“Chris Barnett’s incredible talents have rightfully positioned him at the forefront of popular music and culture.”

Andrew Gould, Downtown

In addition to his work as a record producer, Barnett has an extensive background in audio engineering and operates his own recording studio, Glass Tree Creative.

Based in downtown Chicago, the studio is frequented by the likes of Chance The Rapper, Juice WRLD, Vic Mensa, G Herbo, Desiigner, Lil Bibby, Tee Grizzley, and has the studio of choice for many projects such as Juice WRLD’s Hide from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).

“This was a long and well thought out process and the fit was right.”

Chris Barnett

“Chris Barnett’s incredible talents have rightfully positioned him at the forefront of popular music and culture,” said Downtown’s Senior Vice President and Head of A&R Andrew Gould.

“Downtown is beyond grateful to Chris and Ben Sachs for choosing Downtown to be Chris’ publishing partner.”

“Chris is a defining creative, shaping the modern music landscape. And he is just getting started.”

Corey Roberts, Downtown

Barnett added: “This was a long and well thought out process and the fit was right.”

Corey Roberts, Vice President of A&R Research at Downtown said: “Chris is a defining creative, shaping the modern music landscape. And he is just getting started.”